Making California Small Claims Court easier!

Man wins $850 from AT&T in Small Claims Court

Matt Spaccarelli sued AT&T in Ventura County Small Claims Court and won! Matt’s argument was that AT&T was throttling his cellphone’s unlimited data plan to a speed that made it unusuable. As you know, AT&T would not be allowed an attorney, so they set an area representative.

The judge came up with the $850 dollar figure by estimating the cost for unlimited data at $85 (between the $100 Matt asked for and $65 the AT&T representative wanted) and multiplied it by the number of months remaining on the contract (arriving at $850).

Matt said he was throttled because he was in the top 5% of data users. Matt uses his smartphone to project Netflix onto a screen so that he can watch at night.

Here is Matt on Fox News explaining his case:

After his win, Matt helped his brother file a case against AT&T, as his brother was also a victim of this throttling. This time the case was filed in Los Angeles County Small Claims Court.

Again, here a casmallclaims.com, we love to see people using small claims court and applying it to new situations, like this. Generally, when we hear cell phone contract disputes, we are used to hearing the user getting nickel and dimed or surprised by the monthly bill when it comes.

An AT&T representative said it is currently evaluating whether to file an appeal.